Feed mechanism for firearms



July 14, 1942. N L. BREWER FEED MECHANISM FOR FIREARMS Filed Feb. 16, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR NlCHOLAS BREWER BY 8( W ATTORN EY$ July 14, 1942. N. L. BREWER FEED MECHANISM FOR FIREARMS Filed Feb. 16, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR NICHOLRS L. BREWER BY M &

ATTORNEY Patented July 14, 1942 N' ilD STAT- S FAT FEED MECHANISM For. FIREARMS Application February 16, 1940, 'Serial No. 319,303

Claims.

My present invention relates to repeating firearms of the automatic or semi-automatic type.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a feed mechanism and the parts associated therewithor-the parts comprising the feed-mechanism that are new'and especially well adapted for use in an automatic or semi-automatic repeating gun.

A further general purpose of this invention is to provide a firearm of the class described of new and improved construction and operation and one that is economical and simple in construction, durable and practical in use and not likely to get out of order, and particularly to provide a new and improved feed mechanism'in'and'combined with such a firearm, and to provide a firearmof the class described which combines a simple cartridge elevating mechanism for the purpose of moving a cartridge from the level of the magazine to a position from which it may readily be loaded into the chamber of the barrel by forward movement of the breech member, and further to provide a cartridge elevator mechanism of such construction, operation, and so combined with the other parts of the firearm that the power from the firing of the gun can be safely and efiectively'used to raise a cartridge without deformation or misplacement from the magazine up to the position where it canbe moved into the bore of the barrel by the returning forward movement of the breech bolt; and particularly to raise the cartridge with a slow initial movement by means of the interposition of a resilent connecting means between the rapidly moving breech bolt (impelled by the explosion of the cartridge) and the cartridge elevating member proper, thus utilizing the very rapid retracting movement of the breech bolt to raise the cartridge by a resilient member or by a resiliently mounted member functioning as a shock absorber so as to avoid a too sharp initiation of the upward movement of the cartridge.

A further purpose is to provide in such a firearm a cartridge elevator Where the body of the elevator is given a partial rotation from being engaged by a part on the rearwardly moving breech bolt, the elevator member per se being a part projecting from said body portion and having a resilient connection to said body part, and even by said projecting part itself being also resilient so that the physically direct engagement of the rapidly retreating breech bolt results in a resiliently acting upward movement of the elevator member proper, with the result that the upward movement of the cartridge is relatively slowly initiated without sudden shock.

Further purposes and advantages of this invention will appear from the specification and claims herein.

Fig. 1 is a side elevationoi the relevant part of the action of .a semi-automatic gun embodying this invention, the parts being in the relative position they occupy when the breech bolt is at its forward position.

Fig. 2 is a View mostly in central vertical section through the action of the gun, partly illustrated in Fig. l, the parts being in the position they occupy when the breech bolt is at its extreme forward position at the instant of firing, and so showing a cartridge in the bore of the barrel and a cartridge in position upon the cartridge elevator.

Fig. 3 is .a sectional view similar to Fig. 2 but showing the relevant parts in the position they occupy after the firing has taken place and after the breech bolt has recoiled to its extreme rearward position.

Fig. 4 is a separate view of the cartridge elevator device including the body portion and the resilient elevator arm mounted thereon.

Fig. 5 is a top View of the elevator body and resiliently mounted spring as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. -6 is aseparate side elevation of said body portion of the cartridge elevator and Fig. 7 is a separate side view of the said spring elevator arm.

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of the breech bolt shown in Figs. 1 to 3 as seen from the right hand side.

Referring to the drawings in a more particular description it will be seen that the firearm illustrated in the drawings includes a conventional barrel I e, a hollow receiver I! secured to said barrel and extending rearwardly thereof, a breech bolt 12 slidingly or reciprocatingly mounted in said receiver with said breech bolt adapted to be driven backward in the receiver upon the firing of a cartridge in the chamber E3 of the barrel.

It will be understood that the force of the explosion on the firing of a cartridge initiates the rearward motion of the breech bolt with great rapidity and the problem of this invention was to transmit this extremely rapid retreating motion of the breech bolt to the cartridge elevating mechanism. so as to produce a relatively slow initiation of upward movement of the cartridge 14 in engagement with the spring arm 15 upon the body I6 of the cartridge elevator. The means I have worked out in this invention for accomplishing this purpose will now be described, but it will be understood that a considerable margin of equivalent means is understood to be within the gist of this invention and that the mechanism now to be described and illustrated in the drawings is simply illustrative of my invention and the now preferred form of the invention.

In the bottom of the receiver ll there is provided a longitudinally extending slot I1 into which projects upwardly the body portion I6 of the cartridge elevator, which body portion I6 is pivotally mounted upon a transversely extending pivot or pin l8 having its opposite ends suitably journaled in brackets depending from the receiver H preferably as shown in the drawings.

' 'A bushing 19 surrounds the'pin l8 and then mounted loosely about this bushing is placed the nearly complete circular portion 20 of the spring arm I of the cartridge elevator. The body portion as already suggested has a centrally located pocket 2| within which are placed said circular portion of the spring arm, the said bushing l9 and the pivot pin l8. From this central pocket in the body [6 there projects outwardly in a slanting direction more or less as suggested in Figs. 2 and 3 a slot 22, through which projects the inner portion of the substantially straight length portion 23 of said spring arm [5. At the outer end of this straight portion 23 of said arm there is provided a curved part 24 in said spring arm upwardly projecting as the parts are seen in right hand elevation as seen in Figs. 2 and 3 for a purpose to be hereinafter mentioned, and beyond said upwardly curved projection the arm is provided with a downwardly extending curved extremity 25 curved on a radius substantially like that from the center of the pivot pin.

The body I6 is preferably circular in outline and is a disk of sufficiently strong material of the desired thickness for the purpose in hand. From the upper side of this body I6 as the parts are seen in Fig. 2 there projects an upwardly extending operating arm 26 preferably having a curved end more or less as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. This operating arm 26 projects through the slot I! in the lower side of the receiver and extends up into a cut 21 conveniently extending transversely of the breech bolt so as to provide a rearwardly facing shoulder 28 at the forward end of said out adapted to engage the forward face of the operating arm 26 as the breech bolt approaches the rearward part of its travel. At the rear of this cut 21 the material of the breech bolt provides a forwardly facing shoulder or face 29 which on the forward movement of the breech bolt engages the rear side of said operating arm 26.

Assuming that the parts are in the position as shown in Fig. 2 the breech bolt moves rearwardly for much the larger portion of its rearward travel before the said rearwardy facing shoulder 28 engages the forward side of the operating arm 26. This relatively long interval of travel of the breech bolt affords ample time for the extraction of the empty case of the cartridge from the chamber of the barrel. Since the said shouder however engages the forward side of said operating arm 26 the further movement of said breech acts against said operating arm to turn the body N5 of the elevator mechanism in an anti-clockwise direction. Such anti-clockwise movement of the body of the elevator mechanism operates first to bring the lower edge of the slot 22 of said body into intimate engagement tom 35 of the magazine box.

with the ear 38 on the inner end of said spring arm, that is upon the end of said spring arm member that is within the pocket of said body. There is preferably allowed a slight clearance between the circular portion 2E! of said spring arm and the bushing l9 so that there first occurs a slight winding up of this circular part of the spring arm resulting in a resilient action at this time and furthermore the whole straight portion 23 of the outstanding length of the elevator arm also preferably being of resilient material affords a further resilient action of said arm as its upper side begins to raise the cartridge M that has up to now been resting upon the outer portion of said resilient arm. As this resilient arm is now swung upwardly in an anticlockwise direction it operates to slowly initiate a raising movement of the cartridge and this continues with the necessary acceleration from the mechanism herein described, and first pushes the cartridge up by the stop spring 3| in the side walls 32 of the magazine box which, as shown in the drawings herein, is located to the rear of the tubular magazine 33 mounted below the barrel in the conventional way, with the side walls of said magazine box forming a substantially upright passage through which the cartridges are moved upwardly into the space in the receiver to the rear of the chamber iii of the barrel H). In the form of the magazine box as shown in the drawings there is a forwardly extending tubular portion 34 telescoping with the rear end of the tubular magazine and serving to conduct the cartridges from said magazine rearwardly into the space at the bottom of the magazine box where the bullet ends of the cartridges are supported when in the position as shown in Fig. 2 by the preferably curved bot- Full details of this magazine box appear in my previous Patent No. 2,094,577. The positive motion communicated by the shoulder 28 of the breech bolt to the operating arm 26 upon the body of the cartridge elevator operates to carry the cartridge upwardly from the lower position thereof as shown in Fig. 2 at the bottom of the said magazine box past the stop springs 3| and slightly therebeyond. It will be understood of course that the momentum imparted to the cartridge would tend to move said cartridge further upward but the further upward movement of said cartridge is preferably accomplished by a further resilient or yielding means which will now be described.

This yielding means primarily consists preferably of a reversely curved spring 36 having its rearward end 31 substantially straight and fixedly secured to the lower side of the receiver I i as by a cap screw 38. From in front of this cap screw the spring extends downwardly on a curve finally pointing rearwardly and then the spring has a curved portion 39 approximately two-thirds or three-fourths of a circle with the extremity of the said spring extending upwardly and slightly forwardly as the parts are seen in Fig. 2 in a straight end 40 extending nearly to the bottom side of the receiver H. The body 55 of the cartridge elevator is provided with a second or lower arm 4| which at its rearward side as the parts are seen in Fig. 2 has a rounding outer end. This rounding outer end is engaged by the forward side of the said straight portion 4-8 of the gooseneck spring just referred to. The relative size and position of these parts is such that the arm 4| is past or above center relative to the axis of the pivot pin I8 but soon after the said disk-like body of the cartridge elevator has been started on its positive rotation in anti-clockwise direction the active endof this secondary arm 2-! passes center relative to its mounting and begins to receive a spring pressure from the said flat portion 40 of the said gooseneck spring as the arm 4| swings downwardly and this spring tension from the said gooseneck spring soon thereafter operates to get a resilient spring tension against the upper side of said secondary arm 4! which, as will be obvious from inspection of Figs. 2 and 3 serves to rotate the body of said cartridge elevator and continue the motion of the outstanding spring arm 23 past the line of the stop spring 2| and thus cause the said spring arm 23 to move the cartridge upwardly through the cartridge box, first by pushing the cartridge upwardly when it has its rim in the rim-engaging ears of the magazine box and finally to raise the cartridge rim upwardly out of said box into the extractors of the forwardly moving breech bolt in line with the bore of the barrel.

Towards the latter part of its forward motion the breech bolt begins to be brought into engagement with the rear side of the operating arm 25 upon the disk-like body of the cartridge elevator, thus imparting clockwise partial rotation to said body which in an obvious manner swings the outstanding arm 23 downwardly to the position shown in Fig. 2. Up to the last partof this downward swinging of the outstanding arm 23 the curved portion 25 of said spring arm of the elevator has served as a cartridge stop operating against the rear end of the cartridges tending to come backward from the tubular magazine and through the bottom of the magazine box. This stop action of this curved portion 25 is well shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings. This clockwise rotation of the body It continues really until the breech bolt has come to its forward position and meanwhile such rotation of the body it has swung the rearward or secondary arm 4| up against the lower surface of the receiver H, which engagement operates to stop the clockwise rotation of said body in this position, which is shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, allowing a new cartridge from the tubular magazine to pass inwardly over the arm. As this clockwise return motion of the body It comes to the end of its motion and to the position as shown in Fig. 2, the curved stop end 25 of said spring arm 15 is withdrawn entirely from the rear of the now succeeding or rearwardly moving cartridge, which cartridge is allowed to go rearwardly from the forward part of the magazine box and along the forward slanting portion of the spring arm I5 until the cartridge comes to a position more or less as shown by the cartridge 54 in Fig. 2. The clockwise movement imparted to the disk-like body it of the cartridge elevator by the ultimate forward movement of the breech bolt further serves to raise the secondary arm 4| from its lowered position as shown in full lines in Fig. 3 back to its initial position as shown in full lines in Fig. 2. During such movement of this arm t! the positive movement of said arm has flexed the said gooseneck spring and allowed the outer end of said arm to slide along the flat portion 48 of said spring until the arm is past center relative to said spring.

The combined operating and locking bolt shown in the drawings herein are part of the subject matter of another application filed by me in the Patent Office February 1, 1940, as Serial No. 316,752.

What I claim as new is:

1. A feed mechanism for a repeating firearm of the type having a reciprocating breech member comprising a cartridge elevator having an apertured pivotally mounted C-shaped body with its opening in its forward side, said body having an upwardly projecting operating lug by means of which the body is adapted to be given a partial-rotation by the rearward movement of the breech member, and a spring arm having an eye housed within the aperture of said body and mounted on the pivot carrying said body, said spring arm projecting forwardlyout through the outlet opening of the body and adapted to receive thereabove a cartridge, said spring arm yielding when the body is moved so that the cartridge is started gently.

2. In a feed mechanism for a repeating firearm of the type having a reciprocating breech member, a cartridge elevator comprising an apertured rigid ring-shaped body rotatably mounted on a pivot extending loosely through the aperture of the ring, said body having an upwardly extending operating lug adapted to be engaged by the rearwardly moving breech member for partly rotating said elevator, said ringshaped body having a channel cut therethrough in its forward side and a resilient cartridge-engaging arm projecting forwardly out from the channel in said ring and adapted to yield as said body is rotated and impart a spring-tensioned lifting impulse to the cartridge.

3. In a feed mechanism for a repeating firearm of the type having a reciprocating breech member, a cartridge elevator comprising an apertured rigid ring-shaped body rotatably mounted on a pivot extending loosely through the aperture of the ring, said body having an upwardly extending operating lug adapted to be engaged by the rearwardly moving breech member for partly rotating said elevator, said ring-shaped body having a channel cut therethrough on its forward side and a cartridge-engaging arm projecting forwardly out from the channel in said body and adapted to receive a cartridge on its upper side, said channel being wider than the thickness of said arm, the inner end of said arm being resilient and being bent into circular form but with its end portions spaced apart, the portion away from the forwardly extending arm having an outwardly turned hook engaging the adjacent inner corner of the body and holding that portion of the circular inner end of the arm while the first part of the rotation of the body winds up said coiled inner end and imparts a spring tension to said forwardly extending cartridge-engaging arm.

4. In a feed mechanism for a repeating firearm of the type having a reciprocating breech member, a cartridge elevator comprising an apertured rigid ring-shaped body rotatably mounted on a pivot extending loosely through the aperture of the ring, said body having an upwardly extending operating lug adapted to be engaged by the rearwardly moving breech member for partly rotating said elevator, said ringshaped body having a channel cut therethrough in its forward side and a cartridge-engaging arm projecting forwardly out from the channel in said body and adapted to engage a cartridge on its upper side, said channel being wider than the thickness of said arm, the inner portion of said arm being resilient and formed as nearly a complete coil with its inner end provided with an outwardly turned hook engaging the adjacent inner corner of the body and holding that end'of said coil so that the first part of the rotation of the body winds up the coil and imparts a spring tensioned turning movement to the cartridge-engaging arm.

5. In a feed mechanism for a repeating firearm of the type having a reciprocating breech member, a cartridge elevator comprising an apertured rigid ring-shaped body rotatabls mounted on a pivot extending loosely through the aperture of the ring, said body having an upwardly extending operating lug adapted to be engaged by the rearwardly moving breech member for partly rotating said elevator, said ringshaped body having a channel cut therethrough in its forward side, and a resilient cartridge-engaging arm thinner than the width of said channel and projecting forwardly out from the channel in said ring and adapted to have its upper side engage a cartridge with a yielding action, the inner portion also of said arm being resilient and formed as nearly a complete coil with its inner end provided with an outwardly turned hook engaging the adjacent inner corner of the body and holding that end of said coil so that the first part of the rotation of the body winds up the said coil and imparts a yielding turning motion to the cartridge-engaging arm.

NICHOLAS L. BREWER. 

